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…or “a huge achievement in the fight against terror”. If, as journalists are encouraged, we sidestep the confetti for a moment and do some observing instead of reacting, the remarkably well-timed death of Osama Bin Laden might not be cause for celebration.

But let’s start by looking a list of positives:

1: We’re now safe from terrorist attac- wait, no we’re not. There will almost certainly be retaliation.

1: We will no longer spend billions on operations in the Middle East. Oh, that’s not right either.

1: Everyone killed in terrorist attacks will come back to life. Huh? Oh this is real life. That won’t happen at all.

1: Obama is popular again. There’s a real one.

Now that we have balance in this article, we can look at some of the fishier stuff. Let’s start by looking at the only positive; increased popularity for Obama. He’s been under a lot of attack lately, both personally and for his handling of the US economy. This boost couldn’t have come at a better time for him. Funny how the sun suddenly comes out at the darkest part of the storm and Americans are proud to be American again. To be fair, they’re not able to do Royal Weddings over there so some other morale boosting device was needed.

But perhaps this was just a happy coincidence. After all, they couldn’t have known where he was, waiting for a convenient moment to strike all along. It’s not like Bin Laden was living in a huge mansion in plain view.

I’m sure it’s all as we’ve been told though. Shot clean in the head, stone dead. We’ve seen a body to prove it. Well, not yet, but we will. What’s that? Buried at sea within 24 hours “out of respect for Muslim tradition”? Oh. Bodies in the sea tend to wash up on shore after a while. I wonder if this one ever will. It probably vaporised.

He also never got to stand trial. That’s unfortunate, because it would have been good to see the 9/11 evidence, the files and footage that the CIA has always refused to release, finally laid out for all to see. I believe the US Government would have liked to bring him to trial.

Or rather, I would believe it if the Navy SEALs weren’t given a specific ‘kill not capture’ order.

The University of Winchester plans to charge £8500 per year from 2012. Click here to go to the university page.

Remember when the press assumed Chris Jeffries killed Jo Yeats a while ago? He was never charged, and yet he was horrifically demonised in the papers and life will never be the same again for him. People are arrested and released without charge all the time. It could easily happen to any of us. I think we can all agree we shouldn’t be attacking people before they even get to court.

But we do. The internet is a funny thing; it grew outside of authoritarian radar, somehow giving users the impression that cyberspace is different to the real world, with different rules. But we need to remember that our online actions still have real-life consequences, especially when we behave badly en masse, as we seem to when there is a high-profile criminal investigation like the current Sian O’Callaghan murder case.

According to reports, a 47-year-old minicab driver named Christopher Halliwell has confessed and even shown police to a body.

Even if someone has killed someone, and even if they confess, they are not legally a murderer until they are convicted in court. If you call someone a murderer on the internet when they’ve not been convicted, that is libel (defamation, identification, publication) and that person could sue you. So why do people feel so comfortable calling for the hanging of “murderers” who have not yet appeared in court? The accused could end up suing everyone on Facebook, Twitter and any other site who branded him a murderer. (Elton John won a libel case against a newspaper for calling him gay before he came out, even though it later turned out to be true). Read the rest of this entry »

Gizmodo is demonstrating the newsgathering capabilities of  a technologically equipped nation by collecting all the videos it can of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Most of these were taken by locals on their digital cameras and phones. Click the quote below to view:

The 8.9 magnitude Earthquake hit Japan today and a zillion-strong army of Japanese digital cameras and cellphones were ready to record its effects. This is it, as seen by the digital eyes of those who have suffered the shock.

Clearly, if the apocalypse ever comes, it will be recorded from two billion different angles. Until that day comes, we will be publishing videos of the Japan earthquake as they come here. - Gizmodo

My efforts in WINOL last week looked successful, but weren’t. I got a lot done, but could have done so much more.

On Monday, Charlotte was away and so I stood in for her. One of the first things to do was make a decision on a live outside broadcast which was planned for Sport. The problem was, it was really a technical exercise, but would have added nothing to the program as there was nothing going on “live” at the time; the OB would simply have been from outside an empty football ground. I made the decision that a live OB will be great to do at some stage, but not until we have some live action to report. Angus Scott and Will Cooper supported this and so it stuck and I think the bulletin was better for it.

Another thing we tried for sport was to have the presenter standing in the corner rather than sitting at the desk. I think this looked much better, although there is still work to be done with regards to camera positioning and background graphics, but it holds a lot of potential and with a bit of polish it could give the whole  bulletin a slicker, more professional look.

The big news was that Colin Firth won an Oscar. He is from Winchester and his parents still live here, so I went and interviewed a teacher from his old school. Unfortunately, no one at the school was there when Colin Firth was, and didn’t know much about him. I was persistent with uni staff in trying to get hold of his parents, who used to lecture at the university, but no information would come my way.

In the end, I put together some pictures and a script for an OOV. My big mistake here was giving up, which isn’t like me and I don’t know why I chose to do something so out of character on such a massive story. I could have done more and I’m still angry with myself as, even if I continued to try and fail, I wouldn’t be living with the knowledge that I didn’t try hard enough.

Still, I presented the bulletin and did an okay job. Every time I talk to a camera I’m more relaxed about it and feel like I’m close to getting it right.

Richard Peppiatt was, until recently, a reporter for British Tabloid, The Daily Star. He quit his job for reasons which he put more savagely and eloquently that I could manage on this blog; so read his letter for yourself here:

Dear Mr Desmond,

You probably don’t know me, but I know you. For the last two years I’ve been a reporter at the Daily Star, and for two years I’ve felt the weight of your ownership rest heavy on the shoulders of everyone, from the editor to the bloke who empties the bins.

Wait! I know you’re probably reaching for your phone to have me marched out of the building. But please, save on your bill. I quit.

The decision came inside my local newsstand, whilst picking up the morning papers. As I chatted with Mohammed, the Muslim owner, his blinking eyes settled on my pile of print, and then, slowly, rose to meet my face.
“English Defence League to become a political party” growled out from the countertop.

Squirming, I abandoned the change in my pocket and flung a note in his direction, the clatter of the till a welcome relief from the silence that had engulfed us. I slunk off toward the tube.
If he was hurt that my 25p had funded such hate-mongering, he’d be rightly appalled that I’d sat in the war cabinet itself as this incendiary tale was twisted and bent to fit an agenda seemingly decided before the EDL’s leader Tommy Robinson had even been interviewed.

Asked if his group were to become a political party I was told the ex-BNP goon had replied: “Not for now.”
But further up the newsprint chain it appears a story, too good to allow the mere spectre of reality to restrain, was spotted. It almost never came to this. I nearly walked out last summer when the Daily Star got all flushed about taxpayer-funded Muslim-only loos.
A newsworthy tale were said toilets Muslim-only. Or taxpayer-funded. Undeterred by the nuisance of truth, we omitted a few facts, plucked a couple of quotes, and suddenly anyone would think a Rochdale shopping centre had hired Osama Bin Laden to stand by the taps, handing out paper towels.
I was personally tasked with writing a gloating follow-up declaring our postmodern victory in “blocking” the non-existent Islamic cisterns of evil.
Not that my involvement in stirring up a bit of light-hearted Islamaphobia stopped there. Many a morning I’ve hit my speed dial button to Muslim rent-a-rant Anjem Choudary to see if he fancied pulling together a few lines about whipping drunks or stoning homosexuals. Read the rest of this entry »

This week, we needed some lighter stories. I took the chance at this, making a lightweight news piece requires a different kind of presentation and I was keen to have a crack at it.

I put together a piece about the move of Winchester’s Fire and Rescue Service (Fire Brigade, to you and I) to a new, eco-friendly station. I concentrated on making the story visually rich, as the story itself wasn’t that engaging, or so I thought. More on that shortly.

My favourite shot of the piece was that of a fireman carrying a box, viewed from between two appliances (fire engines, to you and I). I it worked well and conveyed the feeling of the piece.

But one thing came out of the blue which suddenly took precedence over the the move itself; to the new station, they brought with them a bell that was cast in memory of three firemen who were killed by a bomb in Southampton during WWII. They ring it at the start of each shift. Suddenly, a potentially bland piece had some soul.

This shows the importance of staying switched on. It would have been an easy thing to disregard and miss completely; you must always be looking for that human ingredient in a story.

This week’s WINOL is out now, and I’m only just blogging about my contribution to last week’s. But at the moment, when I’m not doing amateur journalism I’m doing very amateur DIY, so I hope I can be forgiven. I’m too busy repainting to be repenting.

So last week I got stuck in to Hampshire’s ongoing rural crime issue. It wasn’t exactly a red-hot story, although I did include a recent ram-raid. I think perhaps my package would have been better if the headline was the ram-raid, with the background story as a sidebar.

My actual journalism wasn’t bad. I began by contacting the ram-raid victim, Mr Nettle, who agreed to an interview. I asked him for any pictures he had of the raid itself, which arrived in my inbox the following day. Another example of the additional content that can be gained by simply asking for it; the same simple method of information-gathering that made my bottle attack package what it was.

Next came the farm visit, where Mrs Harper-Adams was most helpful and an excellent interviewee. Again, simply asking for a police contact resulted in an officer making a special trip to give an interviewee. Always ask.

In terms of technical execution, it wasn’t bad, but there is plenty of nitpicking to be done as well. I was generally happy with my interview with Mrs Harper-Adams, it was fun to talk with the cows in the background and added an interesting element, while making it clear that we were on a farm. The cows were mercifully quiet and still, as a lot of moving and mooing would have made it hard to edit.

The interview with PC Williams was interesting and it’s unusual to get a police officer to talk to a camera. Unfortunately, the failing light (and the rush to make the most of what little light there was) resulted in a sub-standard picture.

Mr Nettle was an excellent interviewee, and the picture was clear with a nice background. I do wish I’d got more GVs though.

The whole thing was put together in plenty of time for the bulletin; my work experience at BBC South Today taught me to be more ruthless with my editing to speed it up; slow editing was a big weakness of mine last semester and i’m working hard to speed it up.

Three great interviews across two locations made a rich news package. The story could have been hotter and my camera work still needs work, but it wasn’t difficult to watch and I am improving.

I’ll blog about this week’s effort shortly.

Here is a quick guide to setting up an outside broadcast using Skype. These are from my own experiences, and I’d love to receive comments with any additional advice.

First, you need to set up a Skype account. This is done in the same way as setting up any other account, like Facebook or MSN. Just go to www.skype.com and follow the instructions.

Once you’ve done that, it works like a very cheap Pay As You Go phone. You use your credit/debit card to add credit and use it to make voice or video calls. Skype to Skype calls are free (calling a land line or mobile carries a small charge).

You need to have a Skype account on a laptop and someone with Skype in the studio.

Be aware that the microphone attached to your camera doesn’t seem to work with Skype. The cable attached to your camera will only carry picture, not sound. This means you need a separate microphone that will plug into a different port on your laptop, such as one with a 3.5mm jack plug. These are available from the loan counter. Bring an extension for this if you can, as the cables are quite short on these.

The reporter in the field needs to make sure they are able to make the internet connection. Ideally, you will have an ethernet connection. This means plugging you laptop directly into a broadband router on site. This will provide the fastest and most stable connection, but is not always possible. Even if your hosts have an ethernet cable, I would recommend bringing your own cable anyway, in case they can’t find theirs or if it’s too short. Bring your own and make it as long as possible. The longer the cable, the more locations will be available to you to make the best use of background, light and sound. The loan counter’s longest cable is 5 metres.

The next option is connecting to the router wirelessly. This is not always as easy as it sounds, as not many staff at your broadcast site will be aware of the password required to connect to the router.

If neither of these options are available to you (ie. there is no internet commotion, or you are not allowed access), you can use your own broadband dongle. Bear in mind that this is both expensive and unstable. If this is your only option, everyone on the team needs to know so that they have a backup plan if your connection and you have to abandon the broadcast.

It is vital to establish how your connection will be made as far in advance as possible. Arrive as early as possible to assess the site, the day before if possible.
Some things to think about when you are doing this:

Where is the router? It may not be much use having permission to plug in if they keep it in the roof space or a noisy plant room.

Do you know the password? Does it work? Is anyone likely to change it?

Does the site have a member of IT staff available to help you connect and solve any problems?

What could go wrong, and what will you do if (when) something does fail?

Finally, check and test, check and test!

Back in May 2010, a team from Winchester University’s Journalism course covered the General Election vote counts live across Hampshire.

I’m delighted to post this video of BBC Elections Editor Sam Woodhouse complimenting our marathon night shift. At 3 minutes 40, you can see me trying not to look sleepy during a live outside broadcast at 5am.